Nintendo
CLAM
AIRWALK
SLA
THE COMPANY PICNIC
TO THE SO-CALLED STATUS QUO, skateboarders are deviant nomads. While the
rest of the world is concerned with car payments, mortgages and keeping up with
the Joneses, we stand as a testament to their futility by ignoring the race to the
grave and dwelling far beneath the surface. Somewhere between San Francisco and
Vancouver, a trail had to be blazed. Our kind is breaking down the walls of normal-
cy and their wormwood existence by merely existing. In Vancouver there was a
gathering of the clans that could not be missed.
The mission would include a cast of proven warriors who would, could and will
skate anything. The names read: Mark Gonzales, John Cardiel, Coco Santiago,
Diggity Dawes, Skip Towne and a white mini-van. The gas pedal was punched and
Portland, Oregon, was the first stop nine-and-a-half hours later. Burnside as always
was going on-Josh, Osage, Sage, Pigpen, Red, Mike, Mikey Chin, Little Stevie,
Karl, Travis and all the heads were in the mix and killing it. Then there was Choppy.
"What the fuck?" was all I could say after seeing this shit with my own eyes. I asked
him what-up and he looked at me hella casual and broke it down like this, "After a
week, you get it wired." Right. Speed and balls-Choppy don't play: alley-oop
frontside sliders on the cinderblock wall, kickflip frontside airs over the big hip and
Feeling the heat after being poorly judged, Jason Ellis
Top left) was down in the dumps but this nosegrind
shows why he is bad ass. The cast (top center) of
characters. His honorable death metalness, Angel
Santiago (above), powershifts down the pipe at
White Rock. Canadian powerhouse Colin McKay
(right), caught mid-switch frontside 5-0 on the
wooden humper. John "Chili Dog" Cardiel (left)
explodes out of the big bowl at Burnside.